I’m super excited to be joining Nick Devore and Kayo Ogilby at the Big Mtn Telemark Camp in Portillo!  Kayo Ogilby is an amazing tele skier and coach and responsible for introducing and teaching Nick and I how to tele. Although Devore and I had only skied together in passing over the years, this season we committed to spending a lot of time skiing and training together in order to further progress our skiing. In the first few years of my telemark career I remember Devore battling it against the alpiners in the Freeskiing World Tour. He inspired me to also pursue a precise, aggressive and energetic telemark style that would enable me to contend with alpiners, a goal that finally came to fruition with a 3^rd place this spring at the Freeskiing World Tour in Kirkwood. We are both driven to continue to pursue this high level of competitive freeskiing, but I believe that our skills matter only to the point that we can share them so the next generation of freeheeling freeskiers can continue to shift the paradigm. We found a lot of potential in our joining of forces and we are excited for the fusion of our skills in the incredible backdrop of Portillo!

Here are some details about the camp:

The Advanced Camp is open to any age expert Telemarker (able to ski all blacks). The Intermediate Camp is perfect for those who are working on the transition from intermediate to advanced (able to ski blues and easy blacks).

Whether you aspire to compete in big mountain events, want to take your Telemark skiing to the next level, or simply want to develop your technique in a stunning setting, we will help you hone in your Telemark skills so that you may be free and confident in any terrain.

Through on-piste and backcountry exploration we will focus on technique, awareness, visualization, safety, discipline, determination, and having an overall great time ripping some stunning lines. While perfecting the Telemark turn, you will also learn about big mountain and backcountry travel, including precaution, line choice, route finding, equipment use, snow stability, and overall awareness while enjoying the majestic mountains.

check out the website for more information.

http://www.bigmtntelemark.com/

One day after skiing I felt like getting creative and wrote a rhyme to an Easy-E beat. ‘Cause I’m gangsta like Easy without as many STD’s, which is nice. When I was younger I pantsed myself by accident when removing my spray skirt in front of a crowd of people so I guess I don’t mind making a fool of myself in public. Enjoy

After the Powderwhore Premier in SLC we headed out for a little after party at some funky bar. It just so happens they were having a little rap battle going on so I had to stand up to my shit of course. I got chewed out for sure but it was most certainly some good times and mad rhymes of course!

This past season after abandoning my van I was in a fret. My life is basically skiing and when I’m not skiing I’m just concerned with making that happen. Ashley and Jonah Howell (and Noah too) brought me in like the kid they never plan on having and let me live it up in their guest room. I spent most of my time out in the mountains with Jonah, Noah and Andy trying to keep up, learning to ski powder and manage terrain. When I once looked like a goldfish flopping around the kitchen floor when I skied deep snow, a few months in the UT deep got me looking a bit more like burrowing mole. Which is my spirit animal of course. It was an incredible winter for me and I think have finally turned the horn to backcountry skier. So impressed with the Powderwhore Trailer this year. Stoked to be apart of it. Enjoy

The Powderwhores put my segment from their 2010 film Television online for your viewing pleasure

April was a good month for powder skiing, spring just never seemed to come. Its always a touchy time out there and the windows for good conditions can be really small because the snow bakes so quickly. It turns into a wait, wait, wait – charge cycle. But with a little luck the good can be had. I had two stand out days this spring – an amazing day at Mt Baker with Paul Kimbrough and an all time day in the Wasatch with the Howell boys. I love when its go time out there! Here is two short helmet cam video’s from those days.

The toughest part about big mountain freeskiing is waiting for conditions. It had been about a week since my last day of hard skiing, and things were not looking too promising. 20% to 80% chance of precipitation and no sign of clearing skies for about a week. Then the forecast changed and it looked like a potential weather window was approaching. This doesn’t mean much because avalanche and snow conditions need to be prime as well for hard shredding to take place. In hopes of a good day of filming Jonah, Noah (los Powderwhores) and I woke up at 5am and we started hiking by 6:15 under fully cloudy skies and really low clouds. Stoke was low but our possible objective for the day was far away so we struck out in hopes of clearing skies.

The clouds burned off as the sun rose! Jonah and Noah heading up the ridge to Superior. We weren’t sure what the wind did to the snow so we grabbed a few warm up runs before heading over to Mill B.

Straight up cold smoke! The snow was amazing, fast, cruisy and light! Smother me in butter baby! The shot is of Noah cruising off the North side of Superior. We continued over Cardiac Ridge into Mill B, some areas were visibly wind jacked and there were a few propagating point releases. The storm had groppled before it snowed so there were was definitely shallow, yet manageable avalanche activity. It was so hard to believe how cold the snow was for April 22.

These shallow pockets made the day a little spicy, I haven’t been out much when things are popping loose. In general things were running slow so while manageable it was definitely nerve racking!

When we were heading up to ski our lines, Noah knew I wanted to ski a line that had a suspicious looking entrance blocked by a cornice. Its really hard to see these things from the bottom and the line looked dreamy so I really wanted to give it a look. Noah cautioned against the line stressing the time, heat, challenge and danger of dealing with cornices. I should have listened to his wisdom and stayed away from the line all together but instead skinned up and tried to peak over the edge, when, (with skins on, heel throws up, no helmet or jacket) the cornice cracked a few feet behind my tails. I jumped off and somehow stuck, jamming my arms into the snow up to my elbows and landing on my feet. This was by far the scariest experience I’ve had in the mountains and am just now realizing how lucky I was. The surface snow slid and the cornice tumbled down the mountain, I’m so happy that the weight of the cornice did not trigger a deeper instability. Somehow the cornice broke in the smallest possible area and dropped me on top of the line I wanted to ski. So grateful for a lesson that didn’t cost me an injury or worse. Cheaper than college. Harsh introduction to the Mill BEAST.

Where the blue sky is there used to be cornice. I won’t be messing with these anytime soon. This was the first time I’ve seen a cornice fall and it is truly scary, RESPECT needed. It was on so we kept skiing for the rest of the day and kept our heads up. It was necessary to beat a significantly building sluff train down every line.

This put the fear of god in us all. It was a few days old but is by the far the biggest debris pile I’ve ever seen. Spring brings some craziness and this really makes me wanna stay home. Never, ever wanna see one of these pull out. I had to transfer a lot of tokens from luck bin into my experience jar today. The mountains are indeed powerful, and its important to remember that no matter how hard one can shred they are still infinitely more powerful than we can ever be. So glad I got these lessons the easy way.

The snow in the high country is deeper than ever and surprisingly wintery. It was necessary to remove our skis a few times on the way out and the creek had a decent flow; a reminder that the seasons are changing and this snow won’t be around for ever. Be safe.

Tough Guy Productions dialed in a 10 day trip to Alaska for the top 3 men and women of the Big Mtn Telemark Series this season. We met in Anchorage and loaded up in two RV’s for 10 days of AK madness!  We enjoyed one day skiing at Alyeska Resort waiting for our friend Colin Macmillan. Airlines and broken planes probably made him insane and also prevented him from joining us in Alaska so we were forced to continue on our journey without him.  Valdez had seen its lowest snow pack in like 20years or something but it had been snowing, and albeit shallow – the mountains were still primed for our arrival. Low light in Alaska leaves one with limited options but we made sure to get out nearly every day during our trip. A little blue hole opened up for us and we skied this line in “brobowl.” It was a lucky blue window and Nina Porcelli, Lucy Sackbauer and Mackenzie Mailley all got their first taste of AK fresh.

The skiing was broken up by the inevitable RV chilling time, complete with beer, cards, delicious food and ski dreams.

Mmmm, good. Our next chance at the goods was an adventure to Python Shoulder, we got a sled ride up to the top of the basin and hiked some sweet lines accompanied by guide Eli Potter of Wild Alpine.

The snowpack was looking good so we set after two cool chutes on Python Shoulder pictured below. Sweet shot from Ty Dizzo-berry.

On the final day of the trip we scored when a bluebird day took us by surprise. Allie and Frenchy managed to get us up in the Heli and we had a truly all time day.

This is a real pretty shot I poached from Corky Still of me and the team heading up to our first line.

Corky took a shot of me skiing my first line of the day, the sluff was running fast but stability was good otherwise – we knew we were in for a treat.

 After playing with pockets of light and waiting out storms for 10 days we got the sunny day we needed to stich fat smiles on our faces. This is a shot of Lucy Sackbauer shredding the last line of the day, true AK pow at its finest! The Telemark Series this year was an awesome time with good snow and venues in Grand Targhee, Alpine Meadows and Crested Butte.  Special thanks to the TGP crew, Stephane Riendeau and Allie Bruni for making an awesome comp series this year. If your in to that kinda sillyness be sure to check out http://www.toughguyproductions.com/ and come out for the fun next year!

Sydney Fuller ripping bodybag. Photo by Kjell Ellefson.

Tele skiers gathered in Crested Butte this past weekend to test their skills at the longest standing Telemark Freeskiing competition. As was the case at every competition this year we were graced with fresh snow and primed for the day one competition on Headwall. The ladies laid down some impressive lines with two time champion and Flylow friend Sydney Fuller being the first lady to ski “pocket air” in a Telemark Competition. Becca Lesure won the day with a surprisingly fast run through the same area. Also of note were Crested Butte native Mackenzie Mailly’s lines through Angle Gully. Locals Colin and Seaton Macmillan, Mark Robbins and Ben Morello skied dominant lines with a good showing by Skylar Memsic as well. Eighteen year old Peter Madigan found himself in fifth place after a quick line through the keyhole area. The Day Two venue was the intimidating, body bag, staircase and slot rock area. The difficulty of the competition was elevated but everyone skied safe in the adverse conditions. Sydney won the women’s category with a run down the meat of Bodybag. She was followed by Mackenzie Mailly and Kirsten Frasier. I also skied well and was able to bring home the victory! (Where’s home?). Colin Macmillan made a huge leap from 11th place into Second with two fast runs down Bodybag. Seaton and Skylar Memsic tied for 3rd completing a Flylow dominated podium. The junior categories were also competitive with big contingents from the CRMS, Alpine Meadows and CB tele teams. This competition brought a close to the TGP Telemark Big Mountain Series and the top three men and women are headed to Tailgate Alaska to represent the oh-so-graceful sport of freeheeling. So great to spend another weekend with a bunch of awesome tele-skiers. Check out results here

Special thanks to Tough Guy Productions for all there hard work making the series happen this year! Their labor of love made a great season for the rest of us. Hope to see all you stinky freeheelers around the bend! Good times.

Massive couliors, sunny skies and snow on the edge of desert; the ski lines near Bishop, California are unique. The eastern sierra is a place where 3000 foot couliors are dwarfed by their 6000 foot counterparts. A few days after the ski competition Stephane and I headed south for some big lines, and of course mad rhymes (no rapping was actually done on this trip, except the mad rhymes that are always cycling through my head of course). Nate Greenberg aka “the man who wrote the book” was our host and guide. A mid-early morning, breakfast burritos and a quick stop to grab Nate’s sled sent us on our way to Mt Basin’s North Central Coulior. A 20 minute sled ride and 1hr skin brought us to the bottom of this:

Where we proceeded to set a 2800 foot boot pack to the top. Traveling conditions were tough at times, with anything from thigh deep gropple, to punchy snow and crust standing in our way. The leap frog prevailed and we found ourselves on top of a sweet line. I’ll let the video tell the rest of the story.

There is tons of exploring to do in the Eastern Sierra, home of sunny skies and mammoth lines (punny). Check out the book!

Backcountry Skiing California’s Eastern Sierra by Nate Greenberg and Dan Mingori